Tony tourist town feels pinch of housing crunch
Sedona, Ariz., converts parking lot into place where people can live while trying to find permanent home
It is the driver who takes tourists on Jeep tours. It is the veteran who works as a carpenter. It is the person who works at the Whole Foods that sells sashimi-grade salmon for $44.99 a pound. They all live a precarious life sleeping every night in their cars parked somewhere around Sedona, Ariz.
It’s become a big problem for the tony tourist town, which is why the Sedona City Council approved a program last week that temporarily converts an empty parking lot into a place where families or workers or students can live while trying to find a permanent home.
Detractors said they feared the lot would eventually become an encampment of tents, which are not allowed under the program. “It’s a very slippery slope,” one resident wrote to the city. But proponents argued that this is needed in a city that lacks affordable housing and where business owners say no one wants to work to service a steady stream of tourists. City officials say state protections for short-term rental hosts make it difficult to provide affordable housing.
Council members voted 6-1 on March 12 to provide 40 first-come, firstserved spots for people experiencing vehicular homelessness to have a safe place to park. If the effort earns enough signatures, the project will land on November’s ballot.
“When you have something as divisive as this, you could break this community. And I don’t want to see that happen,” said Vice Mayor Holli Ploog before lodging the sole dissenting vote.
Ploog said she didn’t like the process that led to the vote but said she would sign the petition to put the project on a ballot because she wants to know what residents think.
This is all happening in a city where temperatures reach as low as the 30s and as high as the triple digits, but those against the project want the lot site to again host a music venue and not provide safety for those living in their cars.
“They just [derailed] our project with no care for the working people,” Mayor Scott Jablow told The Washington Post on Monday.
He said critics spread misinformation, saying that the project will draw people from throughout the country, but the program is built to ensure that doesn’t happen: Participants must provide vehicle registration and proof of insurance along with a proof of employment or a school voucher.
Those who live in their vehicles have found refuge parking overnight in the Coconino National Forest, but recent changes curbed the length of overnight camping stays. Others just park in business parking lots or on streets, prompting police to shoo them away.
People living out of their cars face different challenges than people experiencing homelessness who live outside, according to an agenda item. They risk towing and impoundment while having an unmoored place to sleep. “They often maintain work and community ties not afforded to individuals living on the street,” city staff wrote.